[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 12 (Monday, January 26, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H546-H548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION ACT
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 357) to amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to
expand the training for Federal Government personnel relating to
trafficking in persons, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 357
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Human Trafficking Prevention
Act''.
SEC. 2. EXPANDED TRAINING RELATING TO TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS.
Section 105(c)(4) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act
of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7105(c)(4)) is amended--
(1) by inserting ``, including members of the Service (as
such term is defined in section 103 of the Foreign Service
Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3903))'' after ``Department of
State''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following: ``Training under
this paragraph shall include, at a minimum, the following:
``(A) A distance learning course on trafficking-in-persons
issues and the Department of State's obligations under this
Act, targeted for embassy reporting officers, regional
bureaus' trafficking-in-persons coordinators, and their
superiors.
``(B) Specific trafficking-in-persons briefings for all
ambassadors and deputy chiefs of mission before such
individuals depart for their posts.
``(C) At least annual reminders to all such personnel,
including appropriate personnel from other Federal
departments and agencies, at each diplomatic or consular post
of the Department of State located outside the United States
of key problems, threats, methods, and warning signs of
trafficking in persons specific to the country or
jurisdiction in which each such post is located, and
appropriate procedures to report information that any such
personnel may acquire about possible cases of trafficking in
persons.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Royce) and the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr.
Cicilline) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
General Leave
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material in the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a committed participant in this body's
decade-and-a-half-long fight against human trafficking since the
passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Although we
have made some progress and raised global awareness on this issue,
there are still today somewhere around 20 million people around the
world who remain subject to the horrors of this modern day slavery,
either through trafficking for exploitation for work or child sex
trafficking. Most of these victims are women, and many, as you know,
Mr. Speaker, are children.
Given the high stakes, U.S. officials working overseas must be able
to recognize the signs, the telltale signs, of this terrible crime. If
they do not know which groups are most vulnerable, or what activities
should raise their suspicions, then successful action is very unlikely.
Though current law requires that State Department personnel be
trained to identify trafficking victims, it does not prescribe how they
should be trained. This bill does. The Human Trafficking Prevention Act
would specify minimum training requirements for the Department of
State. These would include a training course for Department personnel
who deal with trafficking issues, in addition to trafficking briefings
for all of our Ambassadors and all of our deputy chiefs of mission
before they depart for their posts. It also ensures that U.S. officials
stationed overseas get annual updates on trafficking-related
developments related to the countries where they are working.
We have done a lot to move legislation to force other countries to
adopt legislation. But our Ambassadors overseas and their deputies
overseas need this education.
While the State Department currently appears to be meeting many of
the standards, we all know that practices can change, and by specifying
reasonable minimal requirements for such training, this bill
strengthens existing law at no additional cost to our taxpayers.
I want to recognize the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sean Patrick
Maloney), who authored this measure, which passed as H.R. 4449 during
the last Congress, and I want to thank him for reintroducing the bill
that is before us today.
While we are discussing improvements to the anti-trafficking
practices of our foreign affairs agencies, I also want to invite my
colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 400, the bipartisan Trafficking Prevention
in Foreign Affairs Contracting Act, that my ranking member of the
committee, Eliot Engel, and I recently introduced and which we hope to
move forward promptly.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume, and I rise in strong support of H.R. 357, the Human
Trafficking Prevention Act.
Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank my friend and colleague, the
distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney), for
introducing this important piece of legislation.
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking is modern-day slavery. Its victims are
robbed of both their freedom and dignity. Human trafficking violates
the founding principles of the United States--life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness--and humanity's very fundamental principle of
respect.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, almost
every nation in the world is affected by trafficking. There are at
least 152 countries of origin and 124 countries of destination affected
by human trafficking, totaling over 510 trafficking flows around the
world.
Human trafficking victims often pay to be illegally transported into
various countries, only to find themselves at the mercy of their
captors, deprived of their freedom. They are forced into various forms
of servitude to repay their debts. Frighteningly, the U.N. also reports
that 1 in 3 known victims
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of human trafficking is a child. In some areas of the world, such as
Africa and the Middle East, children constitute 62 percent of their
human trafficking incidents. Women and girls account for 70 percent of
trafficking victims worldwide, and men make up over 60 percent of
trafficking incidents for forced labor. Human trafficking victimizes
people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities.
{time} 1615
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a cosponsor of the Human Trafficking
Prevention Act which is designed to ensure that representatives of our
government recognize incidents of human trafficking when they see it.
H.R. 357 would expand Federal training requirements for State
Department personnel on identifying and preventing human trafficking.
This training includes specific training in persons, briefings for all
Ambassadors and deputy chiefs of mission before such individuals depart
for their post.
This bill would also require that annual reminders be sent to
appropriate diplomatic personnel about the key problems, threats,
methods, and warning signs of trafficking in persons at their
respective Embassy and consular post.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation will better prepare our Nation's public
servants to quickly identify incidents of human trafficking and take
swift action as they serve abroad. We passed the same bill last year,
and I urge my colleagues to do so again.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time to close.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney), the author of this important bill.
Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong
support of my bill, H.R. 357, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act.
I would like to thank my colleagues Mr. Royce and Mr. Cicilline and
my cosponsors, and I would like to acknowledge Majority Leader McCarthy
for his leadership on taking up this legislation at the beginning of
this new Congress.
No matter what part of the country you are from, human trafficking is
an issue that we have to address now because lives are at stake. The
State Department estimates that millions of children, women, and men
are trafficked each year and forced into modern-day slavery as part of
an evil and fast-growing industry.
We know that the crime of human trafficking is dramatically
underreported, and most of it happens invisibly; therefore, a critical
part of the work we are doing today is to bring human trafficking out
in the open, so we can raise awareness and prevent it from happening to
more of the world's most vulnerable populations.
We must also remember that this happens right here in our
communities, all across our own country. Behind all of these numbers
and statistics, there are real faces and real stories of women, men,
and, too often, children--women like Mandy Palmer of western New York
who 4 years ago met a man named Ryan online. Ryan was not who he
pretended to be. Ryan turned out to be a human trafficker, a pimp who
forced Mandy into prostitution and threatened her family.
New York continues to be one of the top hubs of human trafficking
where sex trafficking, child labor, and indentured servitude happen all
too frequently. Just one organization in New York, Safe Horizon, has
worked with more than 600 victims in recent years.
In the Hudson Valley, we have seen it in Newburgh, in Poughkeepsie,
places like Wappingers Falls, places like New Windsor, and even small
villages like Pound Ridge. Story after story tells us that this
disgusting, this horrifying practice of modern-day slavery happens
right here, right in our own neighborhoods, in our own backyards.
Just 10 days ago, authorities took action against a major sex
trafficking ring in Albany, New York. Nine women who had traveled here
from a foreign country were forced into prostitution at four different
massage parlors.
In another community in the Hudson Valley, about an hour away from
New York City, a man tricked teenage girls to travel to the United
States on tourist visas from countries like Brazil, Hungary, and
France. He instructed these women to lie to both Immigration and State
Department officials in order to gain access to our country.
It is precisely this type of situation that my legislation seeks to
stop. We must ensure that our men and women on the front lines of our
borders have the resources and training they need in order to identify
and stop human trafficking at its source, before these women, children,
and men enter the United States out of their own culture, away from
their own language many times, and become isolated and become victims.
As part of our goal to end human trafficking, we can make sure that
our Foreign Service officers and other government personnel have the
tools and training they need to spot and to identify these victims and
to stop this trafficking across international borders.
In the past, the State Department estimated that between 14,000 and
17,000 foreign nationals were trafficked into the United States every
single year. Although the Federal Government has a zero tolerance
policy on human trafficking, our Foreign Service officers, who often
have face-to-face contact with these victims when they are obtaining
U.S. visas, currently undergo minimal training to define, identify, and
recognize the indicators of this human trafficking so they can stop it
at the source.
My legislation would expand new minimum training procedures for
Foreign Service officers and other government personnel in order to
identify and stop this human trafficking before people cross these
boundaries and end up in our own communities, before it becomes too
late, when they are here and victimized.
We know criminals will do just about anything to adapt to our new
methods and to avoid getting caught, so this bipartisan legislation
also requires annual updates to keep on top of key problems, threats,
the new methods, and to identify new warning signs of trafficking.
I want to thank my colleagues across the aisle because, by working
together, we have a new opportunity to come together to combat this
monstrous practice of trafficking in children, women, and men. Victims
of human trafficking cannot wait another day. Today, we have an
opportunity to do something together to combat this growing problem.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support my legislation, H.R.
357, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROYCE. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the fight to end human trafficking has been a priority
in my tenure as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee here in the
House, but I am pleased that the House leadership and my colleagues on
both sides of the aisle have chosen to make it our focus during this
early week of the session.
Our actions today are not a conclusion on this issue. They are an
opening salvo by the 114th Congress to continue our fight against
modern slavery. This bill seeks to ensure that U.S. personnel overseas
are properly equipped to combat the scourge of human trafficking and
deserves our unanimous support.
There are other steps which we need to take, frankly, as an
institution in order to continue to put leverage at the disposal of our
diplomats and new measures into law to protect the victims of
trafficking. As we go forward, we will do that.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 357,
the Human Trafficking Prevention Act by the gentleman from New York,
Sean Patrick Maloney.
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking is a global scourge. Time and time
again, there are missed opportunities to identify and assist victims of
human trafficking. This may be due to a lack of training to recognize
signs of trafficking, or perhaps a hesitancy to intrude into the
``privacy'' of others.
There are numerous points of contact with the victims of trafficking,
however, and at each point there are people who can intervene if they
know how to identify victims of trafficking.
Traffickers often move their victims to avoid detection. Whether by
plane, train or bus, they come into contact with flight attendants and
the like, as well as border officials.
In July of 2010, I chaired a conference in Washington, D.C., to bring
together the relevant U.S. agencies, such as the Customs
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and Border Patrol, various U.S. airlines, and non-governmental
organizations to focus on interdicting traffickers by training
commercial transportation employees to recognize the indicators for
trafficking. Speakers, including Deborah Sigmund, founder of a non-
government organization called Innocents at Risk, explained how flight
attendants were the ``first line of defense'' in the fight against
human trafficking.
Flight attendants are in the unique position to observe a potential
trafficking in progress and then call a trafficking hotline or inform
the pilot to radio ahead so that the proper authorities can intervene.
Former flight attendant Nancy Rivard, President of Airline
Ambassadors International, told us how she and other flight attendants
compared notes one day and were shocked and dismayed at how often they
had noticed what they suspected was a trafficked woman or child on
their flight, but had no training or protocol to do something about it.
Nancy has been doing a great deal about it ever since, training airline
employees around the United States and world.
Just last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
released a similar training initiative, the Blue Lightning program, to
domestic U.S. airlines--including Delta, JetBlue, Allegiant, and North
American Airlines. With minimal modifications, the training is also
easily adaptable to bus drivers and station operators, train
conductors, trucking associations, and other transportation industry
professionals.
In December 2013, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, or OSCE, which comprises 57 countries from Europe and North
America, endorsed my plan to make anti-trafficking training for airline
employees, other public and commercial carriers, as well as hotel
employees, a primary goal in the international strategy to combat human
trafficking. In an earlier session, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
(OSCEPA) adopted my resolution to implement such training in each
member country.
But what about our State Department personnel working overseas? Are
they properly trained to be able to recognize the signs of this heinous
crime and violation of fundamental human rights?
Current law does require that State Department personnel be trained
to identify trafficking victims, and there are many fine foreign
service officers tasked with addressing trafficking issues.
But, it does not prescribe any minimum training requirements. H.R.
357, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act, would mandate several
minimum training requirements on this issue within the Department of
State.
These would include a training course for Department personnel who
deal with trafficking issues, in addition to trafficking briefings for
all Ambassadors and Deputy Chiefs of Mission before they depart for
their posts. The legislation also requires that annual reminders be
sent to appropriate personnel on key trafficking issues related to
their countries of focus.
By specifying the minimum requirements for such training, this bill
strengthens the existing law. And notably, it does so at no additional
cost to taxpayers.
I want to thank Mr. Maloney for authoring this measure, and adding to
the body of legislation developed by the House to address this critical
issue.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Royce) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 357.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________